Barbara's Sale

I have a love/hate relationships with sales. I love what I'm lucky enough to find, but I hate what I have to go through to find it.

First, I spend a lot of time trying to sleuth out what seems like a good sale (i.e. reasonably priced vintage and no baby crap). Then, if it’s an estate sale, I plan to arrive a few hours early to sign the list for a low number, which means I then have to camp out in my car. And finally, once I'm inside the door, there’s the frenzy of trying to find what I want before someone else does.

But there was none of that at Barbara’s Friends and Family Sale. It was unlike any sale I’ve ever been to before or probably will ever go to again.

In fact, I was lucky enough to be the first friend there and I shopped leisurely. Later, Barbara and I sat on her front porch, relaxing over a cup of coffee and zucchini bread, while Carson, Barbara’s dog, eager to join us, gazed longingly out the front window.

But I’m sure you want to know what I bought, don’t you? Or, maybe not, considering that I’d be sad, too, if I lived across the country and couldn’t get to her house in just 20 minutes.

So, I’ll try to make this quick and relatively painless. Really, I am not gloating. Feel free to look away if it becomes too much to bear.

There was lots of vintage Christmas of course, which was neatly stacked on a table next to the porch.I could have bought it all, but I was trying to be sensible, knowing I have a lot of this at home.

My purchases:

Three boxes of small indents;

a big box of mercury glass picks;

some beautiful figural ornaments;

a trio of knee-hugging elves (which if I recall correctly aren't Barbara's favorite decorations);

and several ceramic angel heads. Everything is perfect for a project I'm working on that I’ll be telling you more about in a few weeks.

A pair of vintage horse show ribbons.

Several vintage children’s hangers.

Here's a closeup of the cow-jumping-over-the-moon detail.

And the cutest apron that I’ve ever seen. It's made from children's hankies. 

And that was it. I restrained myself from her lovely kitchen items, linens and assorted frames, knowing that I already have more than I can ever use or list on Etsy. And, honestly, I probably need to have one of these sales myself.

So Barbara, thank you again. It was a lovely time, and when we do meet at the next sale, I’ll be the one with the coffee and zucchini bread (and/or pumpkin doughnuts).

Comments

[barbara]

Holding you to your word on pumpkin doughnuts! I'm hoping all of my customers are as easy to deal with!

[Gina @ Vintage Junk in My Trunk]

Good god, it was worse than I thought! I may need some medication. How much for the whole porch?

PS I make a mean lemon pound cake. Maybe you can convince her (or yourself) to hold it during Bouckville week next year?

[Melissa's Antiques]

Oh I wish I could've been there!

[laurie magpie ethel]

I wanted to advert my eyes, but I couldn't. The Christmas sucked me in. Those ceramic angel heads would have made me do a happy dance.

[Into Vintage]

This is just plain cruel and yet I can't look away. You showed far more restraint than I would have but then again, I would have driven all the way across the country to be there. Me and Ethel, that is.

[Kathy]

I was doing okay until you got to the hangers. Big sigh.

[svelteSTUFF]

I didn't happen to notice any VERA or vintage jewelry in there did I??
S~

[Maureen]

Totally drool worthy! One can never have enough vintage Christmas bulbs.
Maureen

[Judy]

Humph... here I am stuck in Kansas reading both of your blogs for a really long time now and not even imagining that you live 20... was it miles or minutes? away from each other! That's just not fair that the two of you can find and share so much fun and goodness!!!

Keep it up!

[woolrich outlet]

I painted this old cupboard white using Porters milk paint but decided it was rather boring all white so I painted the door recesses a rather nice chocolate (yes its Cadburys brown!)